The Buffalo Bills are in a good place to add another AFC East title to their recent resume based on some offseason grading from ESPN.
ESPN took a look back at the offseason conducted by all 32 teams in the NFL this spring and summer. Each team was given a letter grade.
For the Bills, the mark handed over was a B-plus.
Overall, ESPN gave only four teams a grade of A. Those were the Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. The second-highest grouping was the B-plus Buffalo received.
While the Bills did miss out on that top grouping, they did still finish with the best grade of any of the AFC East teams. ESPN believes sixth-straight divisional title could be upcoming for Buffalo.
The rest of the AFC East’s marks via ESPN were:
- New York Jets: B
- Miami Dolphins: B-
- New England Patriots: C+
ESPN’s full breakdown on the Bills’ 2025 offseason work can be found below:
Biggest move: Extending QB Josh AllenMove I liked: Extending WR Khalil ShakirMove I disliked: Signing WR Joshua Palmer
The Bills’ offseason wasn’t flashy because its big moves were extensions for key players who will make up the future core of this team. Buffalo doled out new deals to Allen, Shakir, Greg Rousseau, Christian Benford and Terrel Bernard. These were logical moves, and it made sense to get ahead on young players who could have commanded more money had they been closer to free agency.
I particularly liked the Shakir move. In a world where Dyami Brown and Tutu Atwell are earning $10 million, landing Shakir on an extension that starts after this season for $13.25 million per year through 2029 is a bargain. Though Shakir recorded “only” 821 receiving yards last season, his 2.4 yards per route run suggests there’s a higher ceiling.
The Bills took a couple of swings along the defensive line in free agency, adding Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi — who both face six-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs — and the oft-injured Joey Bosa, whose deal would be a total bargain if he could stay on the field (a massive “if”).
Buffalo’s “big” move at receiver was signing Palmer in free agency. Palmer is an uninspiring choice given his 1.6 yards per route run last season (and failure to ever reach 1.9 yards per route run in a season) despite playing with Justin Herbert in Los Angeles. When the Bills didn’t draft a wide receiver until the seventh round, GM Brandon Beane took issue with the criticism.
The reality is that wide receiver is a weakness, but the Bills are also basically capped out — they have almost no room in 2025 and are well over the 2026 cap — so it was going to be tough to bring aboard a better veteran. Given the Bills’ status as a Super Bowl contender, I don’t think it was wrong to critique their decision to not select a wide receiver in the first three rounds of the draft. That means Keon Coleman, the No. 33 pick in 2024, will have to take a big step in Year 2.
The Bills selected cornerback Maxwell Hairston in the first round in April. Hairston was accused of sexual assault in 2021 while at Kentucky, and GM Brandon Beane said the team “fully investigated” the allegation before drafting him. Earlier this month, Hairston was sued by the woman who accused him of sexual assault.
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